Baptism is the first of the Church's three Sacraments of Initiation (the other two being First Holy Communion and Confirmation). One is truly a member of the Church—the Mystical Body of Christ, the People of God—upon being Baptized. But Baptism is only the first step toward being fully and completely in the Church. That happens only with the reception of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Most people in the Catholic Church are Baptized as infants. Some are done so as children or teenagers; still others as adults. The Sacrament of Baptism for infants and very young children (below the age of five) is usually offered on the second Sunday of the month at noon.

Parents who are interested in having a child Baptized should phone the rectory to make an appointment to attend a Baptismal Instruction class During that call, the parish secretary will take down some preliminary information about you, sign you up for an upcoming Instruction class, and send you a parish registration form as well as sponsor certificates to be filled out. Any parent, regardless of religious affiliation, who will have a part in the upbringing of the child, must attend the Instruction. 

Confession is available weekly Saturday 4pm-4:45pm or call the rectory at any time. We also have a Penance Service twice a year: once in Advent and once in Lent.

There is no sin so grave, so shameful, or persisted in for so long that it cannot be forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. But for absolution, the Confession must be valid.

A good practice is to go to Confession once a month. If you think you've committed a grave sin, go as soon as possible.

These five practices will help keep you on track:
1) Develop some kind of serious daily prayer life.
2) Do your best to keep all the Commandments; don't give yourself permission to sin.
3) Go to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, even during the week if you can make it.
4) Read the Sermon on the Mount and put it into practice (Matthew, chs 5-7).
5) Frequent the Sacrament of Confession

RCIC
Children who have reached the age of five without being Baptized, and whose parents desire to have them Baptized, are usually enrolled in the parish Religious Education program for basic instruction in the faith for a year or so—the older they are, the longer it might take. They enter what the Church calls RCIC (Rite of
Christian Initiation of Children); if they are teens, we at St. Peter's unofficially call it RCIT (-of Teens). Depending on their age, they might receive Baptism alone; Baptism and First Holy Communion together; or Baptism, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation together—especially if they have reached the ninth grade).

Children who have been Baptized as infants but are now beyond the usual First Holy Communion age (seven years old) will be enrolled in our Religious Education Program for appropriate instruction in the basics of the faith, including instruction in the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. At a time when they are ready, as determined by the Pastor and their parents, they will receive those Sacraments.

There is an inherent tension in the Sacrament of Confirmation between its being a sacrament of initiation and a sacrament marking the beginning of Christian maturity. Those who emphasize it as a sacrament of initiation confer the sacrament at an earlier age—even, sometimes, right after Baptism. Those who emphasize it as a sacrament of Christian maturity tend to delay its confering until sometime in the early- or mid-teenage years. The tendency in the United States has been to view it more as a sacrament of Christian maturity and thus to delay its conferral to sometime in the late grammar/early high school years. Confirmation is thus conferred at Saint Peter's in the 8th Grade. This gives students the opportunity to discuss in class the challenges to their faith and morals that they are newly experiencing. For particulars on the Confirmation course, see Religious Education.

The sacrament may also be conferred on adults—either those who grew up as Catholics but, for one reason or another, were never confirmed in their youth, or non-Catholics who are interested in becoming Catholic. For particulars, see RCIA below.

The Sacrament of Marriage is offered year round at Saint Peter's Those eligible to be married in the Catholic Church fall into four categories. Catholics of mature age who 1) have never been married before, or 2) whose previous spouse has died, or 3) whose previous marriage (ending in divorce) was not in the Catholic Church, or 4) whose previous marriage (ending in divorce) was in the Catholic Church but has been declared null by the marriage tribunal of a Catholic Diocese. These criteria apply to all Catholics seeking to marry in the Church (any marriage by a Catholic outside the Church is invalid).

If a Catholic seeks to marry a Baptized non-Catholic Christian in the Catholic Church, that Christian is not required to become a Catholic but a) must never have been married before (even in a civil or Protestant ceremony, both of which the Church considers valid for Protestants); or b) if he or she was married, either the former spouse has died or the former marriage has been declared null by a Catholic marriage tribunal.

If a Catholic seeks to marry someone who has never been Baptized, that person must, usually, be someone who has not previously been married or whose previous spouse has died. There are extenuating circumstances that might apply if an un-Baptized has been married before, the marriage ended in divorce, and the spouse is still alive. Best to speak with the pastor about this situation.

The vocation of marriage is a vocation to love: not the love sung about in popular songs but love Jesus had that led him to sacrifice himself for our salvation.

Anyone interested in getting married at St. Peter’s should get in touch with the pastor at least eight months before the desired date. This allows time for the church instruction and preparation required by Church law

At the initial meeting with the pastor, basic information on the future bride and groom is collected, these requirements are discussed, and any questions are answered. The couple is then advised to take some time to consider the requirements and then to get back in touch with the pastor if they wish to proceed.

PRIESTHOOD
For reasons known only to God himself, he calls some men and not others to serve as priests in his Church. That call can come at almost any time in a man’s life: some priests have reported feeling called from a very early age, others at only a later, mature age. Being called and answering the call, however, are two distinct
moments, for to become a priest entails a renunciation of some prospective good (marriage, family life, future work or professional aspirations) that the one being called might not be willing to make. Experience tells us, however, that the invitation to the priesthood or religious life that God extends to an individual is how he intends that individual not only to work out his salvation but to be as happy as possible in doing it.

The Church understands, however, that two calls are necessary for a man to be ordained: the personal, interior call, and, more importantly, the call by a bishop willing to ordain him. Bishops have no direct access to a candidate’s soul and so can’t judge the genuineness of a personal call; they can, however, judge whether he has the requisite natural human virtues that make for a successful priest living among parishioners. Part of the discernment process in the seminary is sifting through candidates for those lacking in areas of human maturity necessary to be a basically good man (not to mention a good priest) or those candidates thought to be actively hiding personal deficiencies. Without a bishop willing to ordain, no matter how strong a man’s personal feeling might be—since feelings can be self-generated as well as God-generated—he doesn’t have a vocation to the priesthood. Conversely, men may seek ordination—and go on actually to be ordained—without a personal interior call either because the vocation wasn’t really theirs to begin with (but their mother’s, for instance, who wanted a priest for a son more than anything else)
or because they saw the priesthood as a way out of poverty or a way toward obtaining an education when no other such prospects were in the offing. By fact of their ordination, these men are true priests: some will go on to embrace the priesthood and come to love it, others won’t. (This accounts, for instance, for cases in the Medieval or Renaissance Church of younger sons who were not going to inherit the family estate, and for whom a military career was not an option . . . of their finding themselves packed off to the local monastery as a third honorable profession and being ordained. They were not being called to a life of celibacy and indeed didn’t live such a life—to the scandal of the faithful and the delight of anti-Catholic historians ever since. But they were indeed true priests.)

Just because a priest, however, has indeed been called by God, answered that call, and been ordained doesn’t mean that he will go on to be a holy priest. It has long been a truism in the Church, in keeping with Christ’s saying that “the one to whom much has been given, much will be expected of,” that the priesthood is a dangerous calling . . . giving rise to such ancient sayings as “the road to Hell is paved with the skulls of priests”—attributed to St. John Chrysostom. So important is a priest’s obligation and so lightly do so many take it, that . . . well, we don’t want to go there. For another saint’s perspective on the matter, see The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena: the parts on worldly priests. But for men who answer the call and are true to the life of prayer necessary to keep them on the straight and narrow, there is no vocation closer to Christ’s heart than the priesthood: since the priest acts in the very person of Christ himself.

Any young man (or older)  who is not married and thus is free to pursue the possibility of the priesthood, and who is feeling—but isn’t sure—that he’s being called, and would like to talk things over with a priest, may get in touch with the pastor at any time. There is no greater vocation than the priesthood because it’s cooperating with Christ in the salvation of souls. But a vocation sometimes takes years to come to fruition; or sometimes doesn’t come at all because the call isn’t really from the Holy Spirit. The process of figuring this out is called discernment. Visiting a parish priest is often the first step in this process.

DIACONATE
The last step before a man is ordained to the priesthood is ordination to the diaconate. All priests were at one time deacons: it’s at the diaconate that the future priest makes the promise of celibacy. After the Second Vatican Council, the diaconate was opened to laymen who had no desire to become priests but who nevertheless wanted to serve God’s people in some way as an ordained minister. Thus the diaconate came to be an “end” ministry in itself and no longer just a transitional ministry; but one, now, open to married men. Single men ordained to the permanent diaconate would be required to remain celibate after ordination. Married men would, of course, remain married, but with the proviso that should their spouses die, they would not remarry. As ordained ministers, deacons receive the grace of ordination to carry out their ministry just as priests do. The work of a deacon is centered in the parish—teaching, preaching, baptizing, marrying—but with an outreach to local hospitals, nursing homes, etc. If the deacon is retired from his job, he has more time to devote to diaconal duties; if he’s still working, his duties are structured
around his work life.

Since the diaconate is most often undertaken by married men, their wives have to agree to their entering the program since they too will be asked to make sacrifices for their husbands’ vocations. No man will be granted entry into the program unless his wife is whole-heartedly in support of the move.

Any man of mature years whose kids are sufficiently grown and who feels moved to enter a new phase of his life in service to his parish in the ministry of the diaconate . . . might speak with any deacon he knows, especially our deacon at St. Peter’s, and ask any questions that might come to mind. If he likes what he hears and feels moved to look more closely into the program—several years’ worth of study and spiritual formation—he should then make an appointment with the pastor.

RELIGIOUS LIFE
Though not ordained ministries, the religious brotherhood and sisterhood are among the oldest vocations in the Church. God has always called some men and some women to give their lives and their hearts to him unreservedly—to be “married” to him in a sense. This total commitment to God is understood by the Church to be a foretaste of the marriage feast of heaven, a witness that even on earth God can more than fill the human heart with everything it needs to be happy by giving it himself alone. Of course, like the priest, the religious must remain faithful to him in prayer and sacrifice, else the world will creep in with its many attractions and turn the heart to pride, sensuality, and disobedience.

The religious life has historically been seen as consisting of two “branches”—the contemplative branch and the active branch. The contemplative life is a life lived in solitude, a life spent in daily prayer, study, and work. It is a special calling—more challenging than any other. But if truly lived, its rewards are greater than any other, consisting in as close and intimate a relationship with God as is possible this side of heaven. The active religious life is what we’re most familiar with—sisters and brothers working in schools, hospitals, shelters, orphanages, nursing homes, homes for the dying. These men and women still live in community—i.e., in a shared residence, eating, praying, and recreating together—but as often as not, go out to work in the world. Depending on how God calls the heart, the individual brother or sister will be moved to join this or that religious order depending on the order’s charism—its way of life, prayer, and work. There are as many orders as there are desires in the human heart to love God and serve his people. Like the priesthood, some men and women have felt a calling to the religious life from a very early age; while others only experienced a call in their teens or twenties. Also like the priesthood, the call itself to the religious life and the response to it are two different moments because the same kind of renunciation of true human goods will frequently be asked of the prospective brother or sister: Jesus wants in the religious life only those who are willing to value him above every other human good.

Any young unmarried man or woman who feels a calling to serve God with “all your heart mind, soul, and strength”—even if the call is only in an undeveloped stage—should feel free to make an appointment to speak with the pastor.

The Sacrament of the Anointing, also called the Anointing of the Sick or, in former days, The Last Rites or Extreme Unction, is available to parishioners who are suffering from a physical or psychological infirmity of some seriousness. It is also meant for those suffering the effects of old age or those who are about to undergo serious surgery. The purpose of the Sacrament is three-fold: first, to give the one receiving it grace to persevere through his infirmity by enduring it with Christ on the cross (and thus not despairing); second, to enable God's grace to accomplish a physical healing if it be for the patient's ultimate spiritual and corporal wellbeing; and third, to remit unconfessed mortal sin if the patient has fallen into unconsciousness in that state, was sorry for it beforehand, and had a prior desire to take it to the Sacrament of Confession. (If the patient is still conscious before receiving the sacrament, he must Confess it first.) If there is recovery, any unconfessed mortal sin must be taken to the Sacrament of Confession. If repentance or intention to confess is lacking, the Sacrament does not remit mortal sin. It is not a way of avoiding the Sacrament of Confession, which is the normal way Christ intended sins committed after Baptism to be remitted.

While priests from the parish visit local hospitals regularly and take the Sacraments to parishioners in need, they don't always see every parishioner. So, if you are in the hospital (or someone you know is) and are in need of the Sacrament, by all means let the parish office know. And if you are going to undergo serious surgery, by all means arrange to come to the rectory beforehand to receive the Sacrament then and there.

We also take Holy Communion to those who are homebound—either permanently or temporarily. Ministers of Holy Communion will take Communion weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or on whatever schedule is convenient to both parties. If you'd like to receive Holy Communion at home or would like to go to Confession, give the rectory a phone call.